9. Marketing, Education, and Outreach (ME&O)
As part of the Plan, a single statewide marketing, education, and outreach (ME&O) program will be developed under Commission direction and oversight for all Commission-approved energy efficiency programs, including LIEE. This coordinated statewide effort will be instrumental in increasing consumer awareness of the value of energy efficiency and better leveraging of ratepayer ME&O funding for more effective results.
We do not wish to impose additional burdens on the SMJUs with small customer bases and limited economies of scale in California. However, SMJU involvement in the Plan may increase their LIEE enrollment and program efficacy.
As currently envisioned, the single statewide ME&O program will coordinate individual utility marketing budgets toward a more integrated campaign with four basic components:
1. An Energy Efficiency Brand: Creation of an instantly recognized brand for "California Energy Efficiency" with clear delineation of what the brand encompasses.
2. Integrated Marketing: Development of marketing messages that offer bundles of demand side management programs targeted to specific customer groups and delivery of the messages using partnerships with a range of energy efficiency participants, including local governments, retailers and manufacturers.
3. Social Marketing: Use of social marketing techniques to create emotional and intellectual drivers for consumers to make a commitment to change and participate in energy efficiency.
4. Internet-Based Networking: Creation of a web portal that allows energy efficiency practitioners and consumers to exchange information and solutions on implementing energy efficiency programs and measures.
We anticipate that the single statewide ME&O program will consist of several "buckets," some large, some small. Representative "buckets" may include the following: (1) Statewide marketing of Energy Efficiency, (2) Statewide marketing of LIEE, (3) Regional marketing of utilities' own individual programs, (4) Statewide marketing to individual language minorities, and so on. Thus, the single statewide ME&O program, which will also focus on specific geographic areas and sub-populations around the state, will eventually supplant at least the large IOUs' current ME&O programs.
Commission staff in charge of the ME&O program will meet with the SMJUs in the next several months to get their views of how best to include them in the statewide plan, taking into account the SMJUs' different business models and economies of scale vis-à-vis the large IOUs. Commission staff will notify the SMJUs directly when their input is needed.
In the meantime, while we grant all of the SMJUs' requested funding for ME&O, they may only spend the amounts they seek for 2009, and we shall hold the other funding in abeyance. Once we decide how to incorporate SMJUs' programs into the single statewide ME&O program, we will provide the SMJUs further direction regarding their ME&O budgets for 2010 and 2011.
In comments on the proposed decision, PacifiCorp seeks further guidance on this funding decision. We intend for the SMJUs to spend their requested ME&O budgets in 2009 in the manner they have spent them in the past. For 2010-2011, however, we expect the ME&O aspect of the Plan to guide how SMJUs should spend future ME&O dollars. We expect to give the SMJUs (and large utilities) more guidance as planning under the Plan is carried out. PacifiCorp and the other SMJUs should be in touch with the Energy Division as 2010 nears for additional guidance.
